Church (in Ruins) — Baunaghra

The E and W gables, both with a single-light window, and part of S wall survive of this rectangular church (dims. 12.9m x 7.4m; wall T 0.8m) built of roughly coursed limestone blocks. No trace of entrance. A piscina is sitiated in E end of S wall. Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 282) reefers to an altar with cut-stone sides within church, no trace survives. Graveyard (LA033-017002-) destroyed before 1905 (ibid.). Probably a late medieval parish church. The outline of an enclosure around the site can be seen on aerial photographs (GSI, S 96-7), and on the ground is visible in places as a scarp. Probably an early ecclesiastical enclosure (LA033-107005-). A coin dated AD 747 was found when a portion of the enclosure was levelled (JRSAI 1867, 72-3). Described by Carrigan as 'The Church of Bawnaghra, in Irish Kyle-aghra, stands in the centre of the "Church field", a tract of 10 acres, now broken up into several small, plots, but formerly constituting one undivided area surrounded by a triple rampart of earth and double fosse (LA033-017005-). Portions of the ramparts, known as "the old sconces", yet remain. A great battle is said to have been fought here, and cart-loads of human bones, the remains of the fallen, were discovered years ago, while the ramparts were being cut through to prepare the site for James Curran's dwellinghouse. The church is rectangular, and measures 36 ft. 8 in. long, internally, and 19ft. 4 in. wide, the gables being 34 in. thick and the side walls 30 in. The north side wall, and the centre portion of the opposite wall, are gone to the ground; when perfect they were but 8 ft. high. The gables are in fairly good condition. The entrance door was about the middle of the south side-wall, but it is now all broken away, except one fine limestone block, chiselled and chamfered, which remains in situ, at the ground. There is a credence in the south wall' beside the altar 19 in. long, 14 wide and 11 deep, with sides of cut stone; over it , in the same wall there is a window, ruined on the outside, and splaying to a width of 19 in. on the inside. The east window, built of cut stone, with chamfer all round the edges, is ruined at one side, and in a very shaky condition at the other; on the outside it is 4.5 ft. high and 7 in. wide; the round headed top is formed out of one stone. In the west gable, 8 ft. from the ground, there is a flat-headed, cut-stone window, 36.5 in. high and 8.25 in. wide on the outside; it is 20 in. high on the inside, and something wider below than at the top. All the walls are built of large, rough stones and indifferent mortar, the coins, however are chiselled. The graveyard (LA033-017002-) at the south side, has been destroyed and rich corn crops now grow over the remains of the dead. A short distance away there is a well, not holy, called Thubberachoppel, the horse's well' (Carrigan 1905, vol. 2, 283). A rare saxon coin dated AD 747 dedicated of Offa, King of Mercia with the inscription OFFA REX, was unearthed in the late 19th century when a portion of the ecclesiastical enclosure (LA033-017005-) around the church was being removed (JRSAI 1867, vol. 9, 72-3). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Laois' (Dublin Stationery Office, 1995) compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 17 December 2007